Jachut

Going back to ork tomorrow at four weeks. Every day ive woken up hoping to feel lots better and every day has been the same. Theres not a lot of pain, not at all but tightness, discomfort, numbness and swelling. Every other major op Ive had has been a quick recovery with measureable improvement from day to day, this is ooooo slow. Happily, the last few days have brought that s ort of improvement, i even put in an hour at the gym on Friday. I cant run yet, it just doesnt feel right but the bike and elliptical at full pace were fine and i will try a spin class in the next few days. The swelling finally appears to be abating, except for the pubic region, and it feels like the inguinal hernias are worse than ever, m PS assures me he did fix them but Fluid accumulates at the site and mimics them, i sure hope so. The other problem is funny, but having ll your girlie bits lifted raises your pubic hairline and its now higher than most of my knickers!!! I think im going o be investin in a little laser treatment lol, i wax anyway bu still. Oh, and now my hips, thighs an butt look huge to me! My waist is really tiny,iwas aways pearshaped but im much more of an hourglass now and its taking a bit o get used to! Dh reckons i need muc bigger boobs to balance

Do you mean visible from the outside, that your upper belly is fatter thn your lower? That wont be pouch dilation, pouch dilation is not visible apart fro under xray. Your stomach is not a huge organ and it is partly behind your ribcage, its not going to bulge out.

I hope your hubby is doing well Cyndi, its a challenging journey and takes a bit to put behind you ( so to speak, lol ) and get on with life again

Ugh, how annoying. I've had four surgeries now in the last 15 months - oh and two colonoscopies - and each and every single fricking time I've been scheduled for afternoon surgery AND when I get there, I still have ended up waiting four hours or so. It really gets my goat. Its hard enough to fast and go without Water - but its the going without coffee that REALLY gets to me. And the anxiety and boredom of waiting. The first time, I was having a huge bowel resection for rectal cancer and I knew I would be getting an ileostomy too so I was going to wake up after eight hours of surgery in mucho pain with a stoma and a bag, but it was going to be life saving. I cannot tell you how anxious I was, I was out of my mind, and I had to wait until about 4pm to go into surgery and they didnt even think to order me a pre med to relax me a bit. I was pretty delerious as I'd also done a bowel prep the day before so I was dehydrated to the point of dessication. that's happened to me with colonoscopies too - not only dont you drink and eat but you do the prep so you can actually be very sick by the time they take you in. And try downing the cup of coffee and sandwich you get afterwards with a lapband when you're that dehydrated, ugh. actually, come to think of it, I was first on the list for my band surger and in and out by 9 am, THAT was a good experience! Sorry, this isnt about me, lol. You cant do a thing about it, if possible try to sleep in and waste away as much of the morning as you can. We went for a gentle walk the morning before my very big surgery, went and did some errands at the shops, visited, anything to fill in the time. And I hope when you actually get there, you dont have a long wait. Even get a massage or something luxurious to relax you and take your mind off (if you're anything like me) being ready to KILL for a cup of coffee? And after all is said and done, your time WILL come. The bright side of it is that you will come out of the anaesthetic later in the day and sleep it off overnight. It was pretty ordinary having such an early surgery, sleeping off the anaesthetic during the day and then climbing the walls at night - couldnt get comfy, sick of being on my back, hospital noises and disturbances, nothing on the television etc. At least you will wake up the next morning a lot more normal.

Watch out Karen, i have a wicked True Religion habit now, its a very expensive habit!

Small plates and bowls are a godsend and really do help to make you feel like youre eating a full portion. Tonight i was starving for dinner. I seved up the kids and dh's meal in ordinary noodle bowls. I tought about doing the same for me, thinking id need more. But I didnt, i used my little bowl that holds 3/4 cup - i filled it to the bim as compensation. It was more than enough, but I feel lik i had extra. I actually always thought about what i ate. I never would hav eaten mcdonalds without major guilt, self loathing and going on another diet. Eating for me was a failure of willpower, not mindless. I ways knew th fat, the calories etc. For m, being nnded has freed me from that somewhat.

I have worn my port loud and proud for several years, and not let it stop me wearing a bikini. But i know what you mean, it does diminish the pleasure, mine was freaky. I also had a small but weird draping of loose skin over my belly button, but never enough to justify a tummy tuck. Events transpired that i had a medically necessary tuck a few weeks ago to fix damage and scarring from recent surgery and my port was moved, and the back taken off it to reduce the profile. I eouldnt have believed that it coulf be hidden on my abdomen which had very little fat on it. But it is right ny my navel now in that natural pad of fat, instead of on the hollow sides of my belly. It is really worth moving the port. All you cn see now is a very light mound and my new belly button is ever so slightly off centre, youd only notice if i stood still while you looked for it.

If you are not at optimum weight before a TT, and have fat inside your abdomen, you will still have a pot belly, a tummy tuck cant touch that . The only way to further flatten is to lose the weight! I would equate the pain of a tt with a csection for sure but I was over my csection in a week, tt takes a lot longer!

My weight loss got slower and slower over two years and eventually petered out. Fills were spaced at about a year, teeny tiny top ups when i noticed i was hungrier and my weight began to swing by a pound or two. At six and a half years, i can eat a bit more and more variety, but basiclly, you will allways have to eat the bandster way or you will begin to gain. No let up on the exercise either, it takes about 1500 calories a day and three hour long runs, three spin classes and a Bodypump or two to maintain my weight.

Yes, i was made fully aware that there was a possibility of band failure - most likely the balloon part, at some point in time but that I would hopefully get 20 years out of it. Ive been banded six and a half so far. Im honestly not phased by the possibility of revision surgery, its minor surgery compared to the major lifesaving ones Ive had.

I dont like Protein shakes but I do like Optifast, and often use it as a base. I get weird comments when i buy it along the lines of, oh, you dont need this stuff but the thing us, becuse its a Meal Replacement, its very nutritious! And it doesnt taste like eating candles which is how Protein Shakes taste to me. I like vanilla opti with frozen berries or with Peanut Butter and banana (often use the PB2 powder to save calories and about half a frozen banana) strawberry is good with frozen berries too And i love the coffee flavour with a few walnuts I too always add ground flaxseed and a few spoonfukks of psyllium. smoothies are great for bandsters because using something like Optifast you get a fruit serve, a huge whack of fibre and a large total of ypur days Vitamins and minerals in a meal that goes dcown without drama and is less than 300 calories. As a bancdster smoothies

omg, it bought tears to my eyes. I did cop a little bit of holier than thou judgement from several people, not least my usually lovely lapband surgeon, because i didnt have a big flappy tummy. The before pics i took were on my phone and dont really show clearly what a mess my belly was, but oh, my, has it been cleaned up!!! I feel like the evidence of my brush with cancer has been erased, gone are the hernias, the ileostomy scar, the misshapen almost hernia behind the ileostomy, the ruined bellybutton, the adsortment of at least a dozen scars and punctures, the weird curtain of skin on my upper belly. The flatness of my new tummy is a bonus, at present with swelling, im about the same measurement as i was before, so my midsection is going to be very slender, unfortunately my ass is still the same size, lol. But without going into detail why did nobody tell ne how much better my, ah, bits would look? DH's eyes nearly popped out of his head! And my inner thighs are so smooth! Wowzers. So...... Gone are all signs of one of the darkest periods of my life and in their place, one lovely smile on my tummy to remind me how lucky I am to be here and to be healthy. I didnt quite realise I would feel tjis way about it, and Ive been off the drugs for days, lol

Sorry, saw it typed yet again this morning, amazing how many people do it. Just had to get it off my chest, lol. Pehaps its because Im Australian and Microsoft American spelling also gets my goat?

Taking a fibre supplement is a good idea but also less in equals less out.

Im a teacher, and timed it for the week before school holidays so that Id have three. Ive decided to take this week too, making four. Teaching is a surprisingly physical job, for a desk job two to three weeks would have been ample.

Oh sigh, I've been down at a local drinking hole having two or three wines this afternoon, a glorious, balmy autumn day in Melbourne. I'm now totally uncaring about what I eat, cant be bothered cooking and the oven is on, with party pies and sausage rolls (little Aussie delicacies of pastry and meat, definitely not on any diet plan). I know I will regret it, but in truth, just dont care at the moment. I also inhaled about a quarter of the plate of hot chips that we ordered. Yummmmm. On a more serious note, unless I am fully aware of the fact that I probably will lose any inhibitions and eat whatever the hell I want, I avoid alcohol, I can afford it right now, on this particular occasion and am willing to make amends over the next few days so I just went with it. But alcohol definitely = crap food and too much of it!

Im never that hungry in the mornings, but i eat regardless, usually a high fibre Cereal with a little fruit, i really have to keep up a high fibre intake and breakfast is the best meal for that. I cant just eat it though, have to carry my bowl round while i get ready for work, dry my hair, make kids school lunches etc

About a cup. I dont tend to get "hungry" but start to want food after a couple of hours but when bysy, can easily go all day with no hunger or just a grumble or two which passes. Slider foods like Cookies? Can easily eat the whole packet. chocolate in unlimited quantities. So for the most part i just avoid those foods

Hey bambam, long time no see!

I have a similar issue, i had to unfill my band for cancer treatment, and over the folliwing year could never find comfortable restriction until my surgeon gave me a really good one. In the end i had a barium swallow and yes, very slight pouch ilation, tge band itsekf is paced fine but is very tight. I do get occasionl heartburn, but not actual reflux, never get stuck ir vomit.I know I cant go any tighter, and I am abke to work with what I have. All in all though, I am aware that I can eat more and I actively work against that. Maintenance takes more work than losing did in the early days. My band is fine, doc says it will be fine for years if I treat it right.

Depends on the 50, I mean, I was less than 50lb overweight for a very long part of my adult life, but I was ALWAYS going to get fatter. I wasnt that temporarily overweight by 30lb because I've just had a baby kinda person, I always battled and struggled not to be fatter. I was always solid as a child, never obese, but I just have never been that effortlessly thin, healthy person. When I was banded, I had a BMI of 36 and needed ot lose about 80 to get to the top of my healthy weight range. I was absolutely desperate about my weight and getting fatter by the year. It was time to do something drastic. Because it is very important to consider that the band will help you to KEEP that weight OFF for the rest of your life. Its not about losing weight, its about losing it once, for good. The band will help you lose it, but it will also help you keep it off. so if you've got 50 to lose and you've always struggled with your weight, then having WLS is probably a valid and even sensible choice for you. I'f youve packed it on in the past year but never particularly had trouble with your weight, then that doesnt mean you shouldnt or cant do it, but you may be able to do this on your own. Statistically 50lb is about the upper limit that people really can lose weight and keep off by themselves. You need to be prepared for the fact though that statistically also, the band doesnt tend to result in 100% of excess weight lost. I lost 120% of mine though and not with undue effort or superior dieting skills or anything like that. I just lost that much. You also need to be prepared that the band doesnt work miracles, its still about food choices, discipline, exercise, and that for someone as light as you, slow and steady weight loss rather than spectacular transformations. But its all so much more doable with a band. Visible ports? Hell yeah, lol. Mine stuck out like a sort thumb because I got my BMI down to 19/20, about the size of a walnut under my very slim tummy - until it was moved a couple of weeks ago (and altered by my plastic surgeon) during a tummy tuck and now its very much less visible, hardly noticeable. You can get a low profile port and you can think seriously about placement - mine is now right next to my belly button, where you tend to have that natural shapely pocket of padding - before it was in the hollow part of my belly up and to the left of my belly button - outside the rectus muscle contour so it was extremely visible. You will also have a couple of scars, they're barely noticeable after a couple of years though. But all in all, I was a "lighter" patient, although I had more than 50 to lose and I would do this again 1000 times over, its literally changed my life.

Well, I've had outstanding results with mine. I've never had any troubles, but the newer generation bands ARE supposed to be less likely to slip, erode etc. However, hanging around here for a while indicates pretty strongly that they still DO slip and erode, maybe just statistically not as often as the older bands. Where the older band appears (to me) to have a huge advantage is that you find restriction quickly and are able to tweak it a lot more effectively. I never had that bandster hell period, I've had restriction from my band right from the get go, began losing weight immediately and never had any problem just adjusting with teeny tiny 0.1cc fills. And back when I got banded in 2005 and first joined this forum, that was very common. There were never the posts about people taking six months or longer to get to restriction and start losing. The flip side of that of course is that for many people, the adjustments for this band need to be sooooo tiny that you can flip from under to over restricted in as little as 0.1cc and its really impractical to fill even less than that, so many people have to settle for being slightly underfilled - of course, people dont want that and go for slightly overrestricted instead and bingo! there's your slips, erosions etc. That is all just pure observation on my part, given my long membership here, and what I've seen, its not fact or statistically backed or anything. But my 4cc band and I have had a seven year love affair and still going strong.

It doesnt make me tighter, but over the years I've seen enough people say so on here that its safe to assume its reasonably common.

eggs eggs and eggs.I love hardboiled eggs - hot, cold, on toast, on crackers, on a salad, as a snack. I'm always just popping over the supermarket to buy the ingredients for another slow cooker creation. I love meals out of my slow cooker, moist, easy to eat, set and forget for the day. Today there's a huge vegetable lasagna bubbling away - fresh broccoli, cauli, mushrooms, zucchini, carrots and spinach, with a low fat ricotta cheese sauce, tomato Pasta sauce and mozarella, mmmmm. For work lunches I buy a variety of crackers, and dips like hummus, or basil pesto, and I just take the box and the dip to work and nibble at it every day. I'm always buying Soup ingredients, too. I make loads of soup, its my other work lunch staple. I fill them with Beans, fresh vegies etc. Made an awesome batch of pea and ham soup the other day - sooo healthy.

Thats coz you must have sent it my way, lol seventeen days post tummy tuck, sore, swollen, dying to go for a run, grumble grumble.